Theoretical study of an LAE-CIV absorption pair at z = 5.7

Abstract

We present a theoretical model to predict the properties of an observed $z=$ 5.72 Lyman $\alpha$ emitter galaxy - CIV absorption pair separated by 1384 comoving kpc/h. We use the separation of the pair and an outflow velocity/time travelling argument to demonstrate that the observed galaxy cannot be the source of metals for the CIV absorber. We find a plausible explanation for the metal enrichment in the context of our simulations: a dwarf galaxy with $M_{\star }=$ 1.87 $\times$ 10${}^9{M}_{\odot }$ located 119 comoving kpc/h away with a wind velocity of $\sim$ 100 km/s launched at $z\sim$ 7. Such a dwarf ($M_{\text{UV}}=$ - 20.5) is fainter than the detection limit of the observed example. In a general analysis of galaxy - CIV absorbers, we find galaxies with -20.5 $<M_{\text{UV}}<$ - 18.8 are responsible for the observed metal signatures. In addition, we find no correlation between the mass of the closest galaxy to the absorber and the distance between them, but a weak anti-correlation between the strength of the absorption and the separation of galaxy - absorber pairs.

5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted April 10, 2017 in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• The Faint Host Galaxies of C IV Absorbers at z > 5
• Simulated metal and HI absorption lines at the conclusion of Reionization
• The environments and hosts of metal absorption at z>5